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Pop princess Christina Aguilera has constantly reinvented herself, both vocally and visually, in the decade since she first exploded into the public's consciousness. This month, aged just 27, she has released her first greatest hits package: Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits. New tracks Keeps Gettin' Better
and Dynamite are joined by updated re-recordings of the mega-successful Genie in a Bottle and an electronic-flavoured Beautiful. It all marks a dramatic shift from 2006's retro Back To Basics album, which focused on a more blues, jazz and soul vibe. With plans to re-enter the studio in January and record a "futuristic" album with eclectic Australian pop singer Sia, Aguilera nevertheless took time out to chat about her action-packed past decade and her proudest accomplishment - son Max, now 10 months old.
VIEW: Keeps Gettin' Better is the single of your greatest hits album. And it's probably the best comment about your work.
CA: It basically sums up my life to this point in a nutshell. A greatest hits record is a huge milestone for me and a blessing, since I am only 27 years old and fortunate enough in this business to release it already.
VIEW: Can you believe that you've been in this industry for a decade now?
CA: If you think of a decade it's Oh my God!' But time flies, I guess, when you're having fun. And it's also interesting that I am releasing a greatest hits record in the same year as my greatest accomplishment - the birth of my son. So it's kind of like a symbol of the next decade to come, the next chapter, which is exciting.
VIEW: You released your first album, Christina Aguilera, in 1999. Did you ever think about releasing a greatest hits collection 10 years later?
CA: I could only hope. But I have to say that I always had a really strong focus to make sure that I was in this business for very long time. So it doesn't end here. I look forward to the next decade to come. But you can only hope. I feel very blessed, very fortunate and part of the reason why I'm even releasing this greatest hits is as a thank you to my fans. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't been even able to be in this position in the first place.
VIEW:If you look back in this decade and your transitions, how would you sum it up?
CA: The first record, Genie In A Bottle, was such a whirlwind of amazing experiences. Go, go, go, go, go - that was my life at that point. It exploded like a cannonball out of the cannon. All of a sudden I was everywhere at once, charting every plane and having an amazing time being young and able to perform as I had always dreamed about since I was a baby, barely in diapers.
VIEW: It must have been a huge experience for you, being new to the business.
CA: But I was also very green and very fresh. So that was also a record that I wasn't really given a whole lot of freedom to do what I wanted to do. But I was just happy to be given that opportunity - so I was out there performing and doing what I loved to do.
VIEW: And then came Stripped.
CA: That was when I was really able to come of age. I was 21 years old. I've been around the block as an artist and had some people around me that weren't so great, out for the wrong reasons, taking advantage of me. I had a lot to say on Stripped. It was about being able to strip away all the elements of me that I felt weren't so much who I was anymore. I was basically changing as a young woman, evolving, coming of age, finding my sexuality and being proud of that and wanting to explore that and just share it and express it as an artist and as a woman. I think that's very important.
VIEW: What was the main lesson you learned with Stripped?
CA: I was able to be myself. The good, the bad, the ugly, and provocative, the vulnerable side on Beautiful, the aggressive side on Fighter, the sexual side on Dirrty - it was a freeing record.
VIEW: Is it all still there, all these shades of your personality?
CA: Yes, they just transformed. Back to Basics, the next record, was all about me exploring vocally what has always inspired me, which is blues, jazz and soul music. And particularly targeting its route in the 20s, 30s, and 40s and having fun with that vintage glam look. So there has been quite the transition from record to record. That record was fun for me for reasons of just wanting to go back in time. But now I'm growing into me being inspired by the future [Aguilera was prominently involved this year with America's Rock the Vote campaign, which featured TV ads of her and her baby son swaddled in an American flag] and also the birth of my son.
VIEW: Well, your son is the future.
CA: He is the future, exactly. But also, being a new mum allowed me to be a kid again myself because, you know, you're playing with toys, you're down on your knees, just having so much fun.
VIEW: What do you play?
CA: We play everything from blocks and I have all my little funny voices. I swear to God, everyone always say I should make a cartoon, because I have some crazy little character voices that I do.
- Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits is out now in stores.
